Anchor Lights in a Mooring Field (USA)?

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by team karst

Not so fast. There are 35 forum members researching this. [emoji41]

And you'll get 35 opinions, of which no two will agree.

[requiem]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

but any attentive watchkeeper will have long before noted it. If there is no such watchkeeper, well, then all remedies are futile.

Perhaps not entirely futile. A light implies a boat, which may be a leap too far for the less-attentive. Better to illuminate the boat, as that's an image the brain can process with far less thinking and interpretation.

I like the classic solution solution of hanging a lantern off the boom, but finding a way to illuminate the deck and topsides would go further towards presenting "a boat" rather than "a light".

Originally Posted by team karst

Not so fast. There are 35 forum members researching this. [emoji41]

Yeah! And we're only partway through cross-referencing the different translations of the Rolls of Oléron!

[CFS Klopas]

This is an easy way to light whatever you want at night:

https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-g...ght-57704.html

Solar powered spotlight that automatically turns on at night.

[Mr B]

I travel a lot at night, I am seen wherever I go,
I have a small solar powered light that I have hung on my stern,
Its actually a garden string light in a small box, It cost a whole 10 bucks from fleaybay,
Its set and forget, It does have a battery back up in it,
But it comes on at dusk and turns itself off at day light,
Its never failed so far in the 6 months since I tied it on with a bit of string,

There is nothing worse than coming in to a bay to a known mooring ball field and to find a yacht sitting there in the darkness, Totally invisible,
Yes it does have an anchor light on, 40 or 60 feet up in the air,
But your not looking 40 or 60 feet up in the air to find a mooring ball on the surface of the water,
The other yacht further down the mooring field was also totally invisible,
Yes it did have an anchor light on also, But it looked like a star in the sky.
You could not see the yacht underneath it, Black background behind it,

Next night another Cat and a yacht came in and tied up,
Both had small decklights on and they could be seen easily on the mooring balls,
Their anchor lights, top of the mast, were just more stars in the night sky,

Even in a marina, My small garden string light is always on at night, It gives off enough light to see where I am going across my stern,
But it dont throw out enough light to annoy any other boats that might be tied up next to me,
But you can easily see me in a mooring field with my 10 dollar solar powered garden light on,
My anchor light on my mast, 50 feet in the air is hard even for me to see and I know where my boat is moored,

Cheers Brian,
,

[Auklet]

I’ve used my spot light to see ahead when entering a known anchoring or mooring area at night with poor visibility. Can’t rely on the other boats to have proper or visible lighting. Many skippers might not even know it’s required given the confusion about lighting requirements in mooring fields. It’s also permissible to fix a light in the fore triangle, a bit nearer the water’s surface.

[Boatyarddog]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I travel a lot at night, I am seen wherever I go,
I have a small solar powered light that I have hung on my stern,
Its actually a garden string light in a small box, It cost a whole 10 bucks from fleaybay,
Its set and forget, It does have a battery back up in it,
But it comes on at dusk and turns itself off at day light,
Its never failed so far in the 6 months since I tied it on with a bit of string,

There is nothing worse than coming in to a bay to a known mooring ball field and to find a yacht sitting there in the darkness, Totally invisible,
Yes it does have an anchor light on, 40 or 60 feet up in the air,
But your not looking 40 or 60 feet up in the air to find a mooring ball on the surface of the water,
The other yacht further down the mooring field was also totally invisible,
Yes it did have an anchor light on also, But it looked like a star in the sky.
You could not see the yacht underneath it, Black background behind it,

Next night another Cat and a yacht came in and tied up,
Both had small decklights on and they could be seen easily on the mooring balls,
Their anchor lights, top of the mast, were just more stars in the night sky,

Even in a marina, My small garden string light is always on at night, It gives off enough light to see where I am going across my stern,
But it dont throw out enough light to annoy any other boats that might be tied up next to me,
But you can easily see me in a mooring field with my 10 dollar solar powered garden light on,
My anchor light on my mast, 50 feet in the air is hard even for me to see and I know where my boat is moored,

Cheers Brian,

,

Seems to be a consensus on this.
Lites closer to the water, transom level are sensible.

Many times I lost the anchor lite in the background sea of anchor Lites, and shoreline lighting.

Just because a rule is written, doesn't mean it's the right approach everywhere.
I've NOT seen any rule exclude sensible lighting at deck level.
Boatyarddog